86 General Notes. [f^^ 



Warbling Song of the Hudsonian Chickadee.^ — In 'Birds of Labrador,' 

 by Dr. Cliailes W. Townsend and Mr. Glover M. Allen, published in the 

 'Proceedings' of the Bo-ston Society of Natural History in 1907, the authors 

 discuss at length the subject of the song of the Hudsonian Chickadee 

 (Penthestes hudsonicus), which seems to have escaped the attention of 

 observers till Rev. Horace W. Wright heard it at Ipswich, Mass., Nov. 12, 

 1904, and mentioned it in 'The Auk,' Vol. XXII, 1905, p. 87. For the 

 convenience of readers who may not have the original paper at hand it 

 may be well to recapitulate the other records there brought together. 

 The same or a similar warbling song was heard by Mr. Wright at Belmont, 

 Mass., Nov. 25, 1904; by Dr. Townsend at four different places on Cape 

 Breton Island in August, 1905 (Auk, Vol. XXIII, 1906, p. 178) ; by C. H. 

 Clark at Lubec, Me., Feb. 11, 1906 (Journal Maine Orn. Soc, Vol. VIII, 

 1906, p. 27); by Dana W. Sweet on Mt. Abraham, near Phillips, Me., 

 June 22, 1906 (Journal Maine Orn. Soc, Vol. VIII, 1906, p. 83) ; by Mr. 

 Sweet, Jan. 19, 1905 (letter to Dr. Townsend) ; and by Dr. Townsend and 

 Mr. G. M. Allen at Bay of Islands, Newfoundland, July 6, 1906. To this 

 list I can now add one more observation. Near the top of Mt. Moosilauke, 

 N. H., Sept. 29, 1909, I heard a short strain of bird-song which I at once 

 suspected to be the Hudsonian Chickadee's warble. I soon saw the author 

 and found that my suspicions were correct. I observed it for some time 

 at close range and heard it sing again and again. The song was a short 

 one but took two or more forms, one of which I set down at the time as 

 bearing some slight resemblance to the syllables wissipawiddlee, though 

 this rendering conveys no clear impression of its warbling quality. The 

 final syllable was sometimes trilled and sometimes pure. It seemed to 

 me that the song corresponded exactly to the phoebe song of the Black- 

 capped Chickadee (P. atricapillus), but it was also strangely suggestive 

 of the song of Bicknell's Thrush! • — of the qualities of that thrush's song 

 that are peculiarly its own (or shared by the typical subspecies Hylocichla 

 alicioe), not those which are common to the genus and which we are accus- 

 tomed to speak of as "thrushlike." The suggestion of the common 

 Chickadee's song was in the bare outline of it, while it was the elaboration 

 and the tone that suggested H. a. bicknelli. The correspondence of 



the two Chickadee songs might be expressed thus: s "^ , }• 



^ I phoe- bee I 



It seemed to me as if P. hudsoniczis, starting with a simple song like that of 

 its relative, had evolved the other after listening to and imitating the 

 thrushes with which it shared its breeding-grounds, or perhaps that the 

 identical environment had operated to produce the same peculiar quality 

 in the songs of two widely different species of birds. 



One of the most remarkable things about this song of the Hudsonian 

 Chickadee is its rarity. Mr. William Brewster's testimony on this point 

 is interesting. In 'Birds of the Cambridge Region,' 1906, p. 379, he says, 

 referring to the reports of Mr. Wright and Mr. Clark cited above: "I have 



